cess.

amongst which, may I be condemned to carry water over his Oriental researches, and is engaged in editing the the faming regions, in open wicker baskets, to assuage three sacred and historical books of Ceylon, comprising the heat felt by Than Wetsuwan, when he enters the all the authentic annals of Budhism, drawn from sources infernal hall of justice ; and thereafter may I fall into to which none but Budhists themselves could have acthe lowest pit of hell ; or, if these miseries should not ensue, may I, after death, migrate into the body of a slave, and suffer all the hardships and pain attending the worst state of such a being, during a period of years Traits of Travel ; or Tales of Men and Cities. By measured by the sand of four seas ; or may I animate the author of " High.Ways and By-Ways.” 3 vols. the body of an animal or beast during five hundred gene. London. Henry Colburn. 1829. rations, or be born an hermaphrodite five hundred times, or endure in the body of a deaf, dumb, houseless MR GRATTAN's abilities as a novelist are not greatly beggar, every species of disease, during the same number above the ordinary currency of the day. He writes in of generations, and then may I be hurried to Narak, or a light pleasant style, and his stories are agreeable enough hell

, and there be crucified by Phria-Yam, one of the to read on a rainy afternoon, when one does not exactly kings of hell !”

know what to do with oneself. But they will never set

the Thames on fire, nor even, we suspect, make the The Budhist doctrine teaches that there are eight author's fortune. The work now before us is not an im. large hells, which, however, are only probationary states, provement on his “ High-Ways and By-Ways ;" it has where mortals are purified by fire, and which seem to too much of a made-up air, as if the writer had been have suggested the idea of their Tartarus, Hades, and more anxious to fill a book than to increase his reputaOrcus, to the Greeks and Romans. The hells are sup- tion. It bears, in many parts, evident marks of haste posed to be under the earth, and rendered invisible to and carelessness; and these are hardly redeemed by the our eyes by the shell or crust of the terraqueous globe. fire and brilliancy of the remainder. Besides, we do But Nirwana, the place of bliss, as well as the Dewa not think that Mr Grattan has adopted the most popu. Loka, or Lower Heavens, are situated in the starry lar style and plan for fictitious narrative. He assumes sphere.

the character of a walking gentleman, and seems more Did space and time permit, we would willingly ac- desirous to recount his own personal adventures than to company Mr Upham into some farther details upon this supply his readers with an interesting series of tales. interesting subject, which he has so ably and laboriously This is injudicious; and, at all events, the idea was exillustrated. We might give some account of the singu- hausted in bis “ High-Ways and By-ways.” The nolar notions entertained by the Budhists of the earth, and vel-reading public must either have fish or flesh. They the atmospheric regions; we might describe the inhabit- don't want half-and-half works, where the author is enants of the Dewa Loka, or Six Heavens, supplying, as tirely lost sight of in one page, and starts up again, they do, with their multitude of Dives, Peris, fairies, prosy and egotistical, in the next. They do not like enchanters, giants, and oracular birds, all the materials to be thus cheated out of a good love-story, full of tears, of Arabian fable; we might look into many parts of and duels, and hard-hearted papas and mammas. Mr their religious ritual, such as the feasts of the Nats, the Grattan may be one of the most charming little men in Festival of the Gods, the poisoned toast, and the ine-existence; but there is nothing particularly romantic in briating tree, in which we might discover the more re- his walking through lanes in Normandy, or taking cross condite parts of the Eleusinian mysteries ; 'we might cuts in Belgium, going into hedge alehouses, and meettrace, in the superstitions connected with the hells, the ing with queer postilions and blowsy dairy-maids. A Bali, and the Demons, much of the machinery of Dante, book in three volumes should be made of sterner stuff and not a little of the creed of our own Teutonic ances-than this ; for really there is a good deal of Aummery, tors, who, coming from the Euxine, imported Budhism and not a great deal of substance, in the “ Traits of along with them. But we must bring our remarks to Travel.” a close, after expressing our full sense of the many dif. The work consists of a number of Tales and Sketches, ficulties Mr Upham must have encountered and over- to which it is impossible for us to allude individually, come, before he was able to produce so splendid a work, and we therefore have preferred giving a general opinion on a subject so far out of the beaten track. We are on the whole. Let it not be supposed, however, that well aware of the labour and perseverance requisite to we mean to deny to Mr Grattan the praise unquestiondive into the hidden stores of Indian literature; and in ably due to him. He is not a very profound or power. all the Palee manuscripts relating to Budhism, we know ful writer ; but he has many good qualities, which ought that the writers purposely wrop up their meaning, and not to go unrewarded. He has a neat flowing style, are more willing to mystify and mislead, than to give considerable facility of description, a fair portion of Irish any distinct information. We cannot, therefore, but enthusiasm, a gentle vein of sentimentalism, a tolerably observe, with surprise, the very lucid manner in which acute perception of character, and some humour, which, Mr Upham has arranged his materials, and the distinct though it never inundates, flows on in a quiet, pleasant way in which he brings a thousand scattered facts to stream. In short, Mr Grattan has few faults; and all bear upon the point in question. The coloured litho that he wants to make him a more eminent man is a graphic prints which the volume contains are themselves more decided and original genius. We had marked seof very great value. The originals have been presented veral passages for quotation, but must limit ourselves to the London Asiatic Society, and are considered the to one, the spirit of which our readers will be able to oldest and only examples extant of the ancient mode of enjoy, though detached from the Tale in which it octeaching by pictures. Few publishers can do greater curs. We shall entiile it justice to a work than Ackermann, when he is 80 dis. posed ; and, from the splendid style in which the pre

A SCENE BELOW THE TABLE. sent has been got up, we do not wonder to learn that it “Very soon after the soup had been removed, and the has cost not less than L.1400. We believe the im- housekeeper's operations bad commenced in solid ear. pression has been limited to 250 copies, and it will nest, and while I was in the act of addressing a sentherefore be much less widely circulated, than the in- tence of civility to the interesting girl beside me, I felt teresting nature of its contents deserves. It must, how something gen!ly touch the point of one of my feet with ever, of course find its way into all the great libraries ; a very light pressure. I did not pay any attention to it and we are glad to, perceive, by a Prospectus now be at first, and on a repetition of the touch, I concluded fore us, that Mr Upham is diligently proceeding with that a cat was passing to and fro under the table. Af,

tenance.

ter a very short interval, however, it came again ; and gratified with his discomfiture and suffering, the feeling there was something so intelligible in the feel of the was soon changed to one of a very different kind. No thing, and in the language it spoke, that I thought sooner were the staring eyes of the party taken off his mere animal agency could not alone have caused it face, which I, however, continued slyly to observe, than The fact of the case came across my mind with a I perceived him to dart one look at my lovely neighbour, quickness and clearness that showed, as I thought, a of such a mixed and horrible kind, that I felt myself considerable aptitude on my part. I was convinced, in bodily to shrink from it. He either meant to reproach a moment, that the sallow-visaged doctor was sending her for her insensibility to his suffering, or for å comhis long legs on an embassy from the other side of the plicity in the injury done him. Heaven knows what! table, and that his grisly foot believed itself in the act But so deadly a look of anger, hatred, and revenge, I of making a very tender impression on the instep of my certainly never wituessed. During the remainder of the beautiful neighbour. My determination was instantly repast, he sat sullen and silent.”- P. 96-101. formed to encourage the doctor's error, to personate, To such of our readers as wish for a longer sample of with the point of my foot, the moiety of one of those no these volumes, we recommend the sketch called, “ A doubt delicate ones for which it was mistaken, and to Bone to pick, a tale of Irish Revenge," and the story of amuse myself by observing those secret workings of the “Laura Permegia,” which is very sweetly and prettily doctor's sole, which I thought, if properly managed by told. “ The Maison de Santé” contains some graphic me, would be likely to display themselves in his coun- writing; but it is a painful and disagreeable subject.

The whole of the third volume we consider heavy. “In pursuance of this freak, the consequences of which I little foresaw, as my readers will believe when they learn them, I quietly slipped my foot out of its shoe, The Practice of Cookery, adapted to the Business of the better to counterfeit feminine delicacy; and advan- Everyday Life. By Mrs Dalgairns, Edinburgh. cing it softly towards that of the doctor, which had re- Cadell and Co. 1829. treated after his last attempt, I gently touched the tip of his great tue with mine. While I did so, I turned This is by far the most complete, and truly practi. again towards the lady on whoni I was committing this cal work, which has yet appeared upon this subject. It personal forgery, and, though saying a few words to her, contains 1434 Receipts, and the Index alone occupies Í marked, by a single glance, the effect of my first step twenty-five pages. Mrs Dalgairns is not one of those in this underfoot affair. The doctor's look had been imaginative and flowery preceptors, who think it neces. louring and disappointed ; but no sooner did he feel sary to call in the aid of fiction and fine writing, to give the timid touch which I essayed, than a frightful ex. an interest to the engrossing and important matters of pression of delight showed itself on his face. An odious which she treats. She proceeds to business at once ; streakiness overspread his cheeks, the livid veins of his and from her title-page, to her “ Printed by Ballantemples swelled almost to bursting, his lip quivered with tyne and Co." at the foot of page 528, she never for a a convulsive tremor, and his glowering eyes seemed to moment turns either to the right or to the left; but, defloat in bile. The look of sickening softness, which he voted to the metier she professes, prides herself on berolled across the table, was enough to infect the delicate ing totus in illo. Her book will be found an infallible things it passed over, like the poison-blast that desolates Cook's Companion, and a treasure of great price to the the garden of Araby.

mistress of a family. It is stuffed choke-full of the “I was utterly disgusted with the fellow; but I did not most important gastronomical information ; and, like a the less amuse myself with him. For full half an hour, well-fed turkey, or juvenescent pig, it has swelled out I played him as an angler plays a salmon, forward and under the fostering care of Mrs Dalgairns, till it has backward, from one side to the other; sometimes luring actually become fat and dumpy ; reminding us of an him on, then letting him retreat ; now suffering his foot alderman we once knew, five feet high by four broad, gently to press mine, then giving his a squeeze on the a very incarnation of all the good things of this life. most sensitive and corny part; and, on these occasions, There are 25 Chapters, in the course of which we are I could mark on his lips the anguish which he was, treated, among many others, to 95 receipts for soups, martyrlike, enduring so bravely. At last I got quite 115 for fish, 70 for beef, 60 for veal, 31 for pork, 41 tired of my sport, and began to hate the wretch, as his for poultry, 14 for curries, 104 for gravies, sauces, &e., glances at the passive object of his gallantries seemed to 66 for vegetables, 263 for puddings, pies, and tarts, 134 give her credit for a sympathy with his overtures, of for creams, custards, &c., 100 for cakes, &c., 82 for which she was wholly innocent. He at last looked so preserves, 61 for domestic wines, 15 for the dairy, and atrociously amorous, that I could keep my temper no 88 miscellaneous. Then we have remarks besides on longer ; but, slipping my foot again into my shoe, I the poultry-yard, brewing, the kitchen garden, bees, waited for his next approach, and drawing back my leg pigs, &c. The highly-judicious principles upon which an instant to take forcible aim, I darted it forward with the book has been composed are thus stated in the Pre. amazing accuracy, and just caught his advancing shin- face :" The chief requisites in a work of this kind bone on the edge of my square-toed shoe. The pain he are, first, the intrinsic excellence of the precepts it con. suffered must have been intolerable, for he smacked his tains ; next, their economical adaptation to the habits knee against the table with a force that caused it to dart and tastes of the majority of its readers ; and, lastly, up like a spring-board, and made a matelotte of eels, such a distinct arrangement of the various parts, that no which was beside him, bound, as though they had just difficulty can arise in searching for what is wanted, nor been popped into the frying-pan. Several bottles and any ambiguity in the meaning of the directions when glasses were upset and broken, and the whole of the found.” We are farther assured, that every receipt has sensitive assemblage looked affrighted. The victim of been actually tried, either by the author, or by persons my vengeance writhed with pain ; and I, with all the whose accuracy in the various manipulations could be hypocrisy I could put on, looked penitence personified, safely relied upon. With so many arguments in its and apologised, expressing my fears that I had kicked favour, we cannot doubt that the “ Practice of Cook. him instead of a dog or cat which I supposed to have ery" will soon find its way into a wide and useful cir- i been at my foot. 'I beg a thousand pardons,' said I, culation. For our own part, we have in an impressive in conclusion.

manner presented our cook with a copy, solemnly de! «« Au contraire, Monsieur, c'est moi,' exclaimed claring, that if an ill-dressed dish ever again appear he, bowing down to the table cloth with perfect polite- upon our table, the punishment shall be instant dis. ness, and I was quite satisfied. But if I was, or even missal.

a

a

A Memoir

of Barbara Ewing. By her Husband, Rev. Sydney Smith in defence of it. We can enjoy the Greville Ewing. Glasgow. George Gallie. 1829.

ingenuity of Mr Combe, and a few more of the phreno

logists, and, nevertheless, we can smile to see PhrenoIt is with considerable reluctance that we notice this logy knocked on the head by Sir William Hamilton, volume; and, had we not promised to speak of every Mr Jeffrey, or any other worthy antagonist. So we can work of any consequence that issues from the Scottish take up the Westminster Review just as if it were the press, we should certainly have passed it over in silence. Quarterly, and the Quarterly just as if it were the WestWe believe it to have been written with proper inten- minster; and we can be as much pleased with Mr Bowtions ; but we can say little either for the good taste or ring as we are with Mr Lockhart, provided they both delicacy of feeling which led to its publication. The support their own theories and opinions with an equal late Mrs Ewing, in every sense of the word, belonged share of intellectual acumen. to private life, and, we doubt not, possessed virtues The first article in the present Number of the Westwhich endeared her to her friends, and her domestic minster is an elaborate review of Sir Walter Scott's circle. Why this veil should be drawn aside after her “ Tales of a Grandfather.” The writer enters into a death, and an account of her birth, parentage, and edu- minute investigation of Sir Walter's sentiments regard. cation, habits, and dispositions, be written by her hus. ing the House of Stuart, and endeavours to convict him band, and sold for three-and-sixpence, we confess our of many inaccuracies and fallacies. This is a point selves at a loss to discover. We do not like this trum- which has been long mooted, and will never be settled peting of the dead ; and far less do we like it, coming to the satisfaction of all parties. There is one objection, from the Reverend Greville Ewing. It seems to us, that however, made to the “ Tales," which we ventured to a widowed husband should feel that there was some- state some months ago, and which, we are not displeathing too sacred in his grief to have it made a common sed to see, is completely coincided in by the present topic of conversation at every tea-table and gossiping Reviewer. “An historical work,” he observes, « com. visit. We may be wrong, (for Mr Ewing has more ex- posed for the instruction of youth, should, above all perience in these matters than we have,) but if a “Me. things, be careful to point out what is commendable, moir” of his third wife was to be written, we do not and what reprehensible, in the actions recorded. The think that he was the person who should have done it. work, in this respect, falls far short of the character of We pass over the literary and religious merits of the a good instrument of education. Censure and comvolume, though we think there is much to object to in mendation are often not dealt out at all, or are not adethe insinuations and attacks it contains against the Es- quately explicit ; and sympathy is wanting with the intablished Church of Scotland ; and we forbear to en- terests, the characters, and the principles, with which it quire whether it is of much importance for the public is for the good of mankind that every man should sym. to know that Mrs Ewing “ was blest with a pious nurse, pathize." This, we suspect, is the great and leading who, being a widow, continued with her during the blemish of all Sir Walter's controversial writings, or whole of her childhood," _or that, when she lived in rather of those writings which should have been controthe vicinity of Auldkirk, “ she procured visits from itine- versial, but which are not so. rant and congregational preachers,' or that it was " a The second article is a long one in defence of the mutual comfort to her and her husband that, during Hamiltonian system. That this system, which pro. their married life, they were seldom separated, though fesses to do so much, has made so little progress, is one she never grudged his absence when it was occasioned by of the chief arguments against it, and one which speaks calls of evangelical duty,”- -or that she zealously en. more powerfully than the most laboured disquisition gaged in a sale of ladies' work in Glasgow, in aid of ever written.—The third article is an amusing piece of the funds of the Glasgow City Mission, and superin- gossip and light reading, concerning the Court of Natended one of the tables at that sale;"-we pass over poleon, condensed from three or four French works on these things, and content ourselves with expressing a the subject. The fourth is a political puff of a novel hope, that, if this book turns out a good speculation, called “ The Anglo-Irish of the Nineteenth Century,” Mi Ewing will also give to the world the “ Memoirs ” and the author is christened by no less a title than the of two other ladies, who must have been equally dear to “ Hibernian Sir Walter Scott.”—The fifth is a short him, and both of whom, no less than the lady to whom essay on Banking, taking the Letters of Malachi Mala. he dedicates the present volume, he is “soon to meet in growther for its text. We plead guilty to not having a deathless world."

read it.The sixth is an overhawling of an article in No. XCVI. of the Edinburgh Review, which, it is maintained, under a show of defence, was an invidious

attack on Mr Bentham—the magnus Apollo of the The Westminster Review, No. xx. April 1829. Westminster Review. We shall leave the gentlemen

London. Printed for the Proprietors. Édinburgh. to fight out their own quarrel. The seventh article is a William Tait.

laborious and important one on the abuses existing in The Monthly Magazine, No. XL. April 1829. many of the public offices in which the Public Records London. Whittaker.

of the country are preserved, and an account of the

manner in which those abuses operate to retard histori. This is a good Number of the Westminster Review, cal research, and to impede the course of justice. The as Reviews go, in these degenerate days. Be it recol- cighth article is a flippant and very inconclusive one, lected, that, though steering clear ourselves of all poli- (although the author writes as if he were an oracle of tical bias, we, nevertheless, assume the privilege of ad. the first magnitude,) on the important subject of Dry Rot. miring talent wherever we meet with it" from Indus - The ninth is a tolerably unintelligible account of a to the Pole”-no matter under what garb it may ap- very unintelligible book, “ The Misfortunes of Elphin.” pear. We think Shiel and O'Connell two of the cle. The tenth is a clever exposure of the absurdities of verest men which the clever country of Ireland has pro- the Disabilities and Privations affecting the Jews in duced ; but we are not on that account prepared to deny England. The remaining articles, all of which are in. that Lord Eldon is a great statesman, or that the author of teresting, are upon the Law of Literary Property and “ The Breaking in on the Constitution,” in Blackwood's Patents, the Newspaper Press of London, Poor Magazine, is an able writer. We are perhaps disposed Humphrey's Calendar,-the Expeditions to the North to believe the Hamiltonian system a system of humbug ; Pole,-the system of Political Police in France,_and but, at the same time, we should never desire to see a the Case of the Forty-Shilling Freeholders. There is better article in the Edinburgh Review, than that of the thus a great variety of subjects discussed ; and, on the

whole, an exceedingly creditable display of talent in the lated from the Edinburgh prompt-books. On the whole, Twentieth Number of the Westminster Review. we can safely recommend the work to all those persons

The Monthly Magazine is one of the stanchest period. who like to get for a sixpence that for which they would icals in the metropolis for the glorious Constitution of elsewhere pay several shillings. 1688, and has, like old Eldon, battled to the very last gasp. The present Number contains, among other things, a short but bitter attack on the Cabinet, a dozen The Book of Health; a Compendium of Domestic members of which the Monthly could see “ kicked out," Medicine, deduced from the experience of the most (to use its own words,) without the slightest compunc- eminent modern Practitioners. London. Vizetelly, tion. On poor Peel they are particularly severe ; they Branston, & Co. 1829. say, “Our hearts shrink at the mention of the apos. tate. Scorn has no word deep enough for the emotion DR ARMSTRONG has said, that " It would be highly which his very name stirs in us. He is undone ; if he advantageous to the public, and likewise to the best

; were to live for a thousand years, he can never wash part of the medical profession, if the predispositions and away the name his apostacy has earned to him. The occasions of disease were made a portion of the educabest thing for him to do, is to fly from public life, and tion of every gentleman.” We are inclined to agree make his peace with Heaven ; for, by his country, he with the Doctor; and are even disposed to go a step will be called the Apostate during his existence, and it farther, and to think, with the celebrated Howard, that will be the only title on his grave !”.

it would, in most cases, be best were every man to be Doctors differ, and so do Magazines and pol ians. his own physician. He would commit blunders, to be Mr Peel, we doubt not, is an honourable man, sure, now and then ; but he would never have to swal. “ So are they all, all honourable men."

low a whole materia medica, or go through a course of

operations, that make the flesh creep but to think of. As a curious fact connected with this Magazine, we may Here is a plain sensible book, called “ The Book of mention, that the Printers, Publishers, Proprietors, Health,” containing simple remedies for all known disEditors, &c., sent a petition to Parliament against all cases, which any body, with a head larger than a pin, concessions to our Roman Catholic brethren. The may understand at once, and have the immediate satis. Monthly, in its Original Tales and Sketches, comes faction of curing himself, without being a guinea out nearer Blackwood than any other Magazine we know. of pocket. We do not know the price of the “ Book of Their " Affairs in General” are sometimes very good, Health ;” but it cannot exceed five shillings ; and the and the Review department is conducted, on the whole, first time we are afflicted with apoplexy, asthma, catarrh, with spirit and impartiality.

diabetis, dropsy, inflammation, jaundice, palsy, rheumatism, syncope, typhus, vertigo, or any of the other

"ills that flesh is heir to," we intend trying whether, Huie's British Drama. Edinburgh. Stirling and with its assistance, we may not save the doctor's fee. If Kenney. 1829.

we die, the Edinburgh Literary Journal must inevi.

tably stop, and the reputation of the “ Book of Health" This is a neat and correct edition, now in the course will be ruined ; but this is a frightful consummation, of being published, of the most popular acted dramas. which we do not anticipate. It was originally projected by the individual whose name it bears, and from whom it was purchased some time since, by Messrs Stirling & Kenney, who rightly calcu. The Library of Entertaining Knowledge. Vol. I. lated upon its speedily superseding other more spurious Part I. The Menageries--Quadrupeds, described editions. They employed, as their editor, Mr Hislop, and drawn from Living Subjects. London. Charles who, till recently, was editor of one of the Edinburgh Knight. April. 1829. weekly newspapers, and whose acquaintance with dramatic matters and judicious criticisms on the stage, well This is another of those cheap and useful works fitted him for the task. Thirteen numbers have already which at present swarm throughout the country. It is made their appearance, and others are to follow in quick published under the superintendence of the Society for succession. To each play are affixed " Remarks” by the diffusion of Useful Knowledge, a very praisewor. the editor-brief, sententious, and spirited_describing thy and excellent institution, ranking among its men. the character of the play, with a short account of its au- bers Henry Brougham, Lord John Russell, Sir James thor, and of any remarkable incidents which may have Mackintosh, Henry Hallam, Francis Jeffrey, Captain occurred during its representation. An engraved front- Basil Hall, and many other eminent literary and scienispiece is also given to each number ; but, although this tific characters. The part now before us is very hand. is a very common practice, it is not one of which we can somely printed, of the size and shape of an elegant pocket at all approve. The frontispiece to a play that is sold volume, which will extend to upwards of four hundred for so low a price as sixpence, must always be of the pages, and will sell for four shillings. It contains a nummost inferior description. Só far from bringing any ber of engravings, executed with much spirit and fidelity; particular scene more vividly before us, it merely spoils and the interesting subject to which it relates is treated of the pleasure which our imagination might have enjoyed, in a popular and pleasing style. We understand that two if left to picture for itself the personal appearance of the other volumes are in preparation, one of which is to be characters. In taking up the numbers before us at ran- entitled, “ The Love of Knowledge overcoming the dom, we find that Juliet has a snub nose of the most Difficulties of its Pursuit; illustrated by Notices of awkward description,—that Richard III. is evidently celebrated Persons ;” and the other, “A History and labouring under a severe attack of colic,--that Justice Description of Substances used in the Arts.” A Part Woodcock is a caricature of the Laird of Cockpen,--and is to be published every month; and if it proceeds as it that Captain Macheath is an uglier and more dissipated. has commenced, we wish the work all success. looking rascal than either Burke or Hare. When we bind the work into volumes, we shall most assuredly The Dublin Juvenile Magazine ; or Literary and tear out the embellishments; for we do not choose to hare our conceptions of the immortal creations of poetry

Religious Miscellany. No. I. April 1829. Dubthus vulgarised. We may remark, that this is the only

William Curry, Jun. & Co. edition of the theatre that contains our popular national Tuis is a neatly printed, and very engaging-looking dramas, which, we understand, have been carefully col- little work. It is adapted for all classes, but designed

a

more especially for the youthful part of the Trish popu- as friends to philosophy and to religion-we exult in it lation. It combines literary amusement with religious as Scotsmen. The production of such a work is an era instruction; and, without being particularly brilliant, is in the history of science, if to use with effect the acpleasing and judicious. Political allusions are avoided, cumulations of previous observers be to imprint great and there is nothing violent or unchristian in the tone of truths in the history of intelligence. This will perhaps its contents. We should think it will meet with a fair be called extravagant praise. At least it is not niggard. share of encouragement, especially in the sister Isle. ly. We avouch it to be disinterested. We proceed to

prove that it is deserved.

The title is, in one sense, a happy and expressive one; SCIENCE.

but in another, it is not. As a system of Geology simply, it is too sober and excellent to be new, in the sense

ordinarily attached to that term, since it proceeds upon THE FORMATION AND HISTORY OF THE EARTH. known and indubitable data, and not on novel specula. A New System of Geology, in which the Great Revo- and history of the shell of our globe, embracing an

tion. But, as a masterly exposition of the formation lutions of the Earth and Animated Nature, are re. conciled at once to Modern Science and Sacred account of the causes and progress of its revolutions, History. By Andrew Ure, M.D. F.R.S. Professor collateral to geology can afford has been brought, and

to illustrate which, every light which every science of Physics and Lecturer on Chemistry in the Ander- collected into a series of mutually reflecting foci, and sonian University. London. Longman & Co. 1829. Pp. 621.

as proceeding from a desire to lay before the world

a view of certain intrinsic sources of change in the conThe principle of curiosity in man is the origin of all stitution of the earth, which seem to have escaped the that he knows beyond the truths of Revelation. And, observation of philosophers, but which appear to be dewhile it could never have discovered these, its judicious ducible from modern physical and geological discovery, exercise builds around his faith ramparts that resist the in and a wish to lead popular students of philosophy, to sidious encroachments of a scepticism, which assumes that the moral and religious uses of their knowledge, it is, portion of wisdom's attributes, that consists in doubt. indeed, entitled to the credit of the term new, in its ing, without being able to nurturc the noblest of its cha- best and truest sense. racteristics_Belief. It thus repels, too, the more painful Fittingly commencing with an introductory review of and pitiable hesitations and fears, which most readily the opinions which have been entertained on the forma. infect minds whose fineness of temperament exposes tion and revolutions of the Earth, from the time that them to the alternations of confidence and despair. the physical cosmogony of Greece consisted of little Curiosity, or a desire to know, is the parent of belief in more than metaphysical speculations, the prelimi. Natural and the builder of the firmest bulwarks nary coup d'æil rapidly proceeds from the age of the around Revealed Religion. It has soared sunward, sophists to the little less crude speculations of Dr Hutcounted the stars of the firmamento-extended to us the ton and his disciples, and at once boldly and distinctly boundaries of creation calculated the density of other states the author's own creed, founded on results “eli. planets--and measured that of our own. The meanest minated from the physical researches of the present vo. thing that crawls examines with its earliest developed lume, displaying the primary developements of the mainstinct, the habitation where it is placed. Man has terial system, and the great revolutions of the earth, in meditated on the structure of his--the Earth-since the such surprising harmony with the master touches of hour that he became, in virtue of his capacity of intelli- the Hebrew prophet, as to constitute in his opinion-in. gence, its master. The first root he extracted from its contestable evidence of his being endued with a knowsurface, the first grave he dug in its bosom, served to ledge more than human ; for he has indicated a style show him the diversified nature of the component parts and sequence of natural phenomena, gainsaid or disof that floor upon which he stood ; and the convulsions owned by all human learning, till the profound and nowhich it suffered, unveiled its deeper mysteries, and call. vel investigations of these latter days, have unveiled ed forth his profounder thoughts. What was wonder, is their truth.” Such being his basis of, and animus to in. now science ; what was simple observation, is now Geo. vestigation, he fitly remarks, that the rhapsodies of faLOGY. This is the appropriate term which is attached naticism, and the bigoted subjugation of science to certo the study and knowledge of the nature of the earth, tain figurative expressions in Scripture, are alike to be and the revolutions which its crust has undergone. It shunned. Revelation was certainly not imparted to is not easy to magnify the importance, the dignity, or mankind, for the purpose of instructing them in any the striking and engrossing nature of investigations, principles of philosophy, which reason can explore. which have for their aim a right understanding in re- When the phenomena of nature are described, it is al. gard to these objects, involving, as the conclusions de ways in popular language, corresponding to the inforducible from them do, considerations of overwhelming mations of sense. Thus the sacred writers, in common moment questions of long-agitated curiosity and col. with practical astronomers of every age, speak of the lateral points whose immediate practical utility is only sun and stars as rising, setting, and moving, in the firsecondary to their universal and enduring interest. Some mament, yet neither our astronomers, nor the Scriptures, of the most gigantic minds that have ever adorned the are thereby supposed to pronounce a judgment on the world, have been devoted to their elucidation. The actual motion or repose of these luminaries. In rela. process has been a slow, but, in being so, it has also been tion to geology, such a truly philosophical method of a philosophical one. For nearly the last century, it has investigation is here of recent date, however much men been conducted in the right way: it has been induc- have speculated regarding cosmogony since the earliest tively pursued. Facts and observations have been ac- ages. "It can scarcely be traced farther back than the cumulated, till the archives of science are full of truths appearance of Mr Smith's Mineralogical Map of Eng. in relation to it. The time for generalization has at land, and the foundation of the Geological Society of length arrived. The harvest has been for some time London. ready for the sickle. Scattered ears have been gathered, After the eloquent, but necessarily discursive intro. whose ripeness may have been too much presumed upon duction, we come to a systematic arrangement of the but a labourer, armed, and robust, and ready for the most precise kind : the work being separated into three toil, has now descended into the field, and we proceed great divisions, or books the first of which treats of to show how admirably he has achieved his glorious the Primordial World, commencing with the general but gigantic task. We hail the publication of this book forms of matter, light, the atmosphere, and the primi.